Customs And Border Protection

More than 5 tons of marijuana was discovered in a truck hauling 100 television sets as it attempted to cross into the United States from Mexico, federal authorities said Wednesday. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers found nearly 11,000 pounds of marijuana hidden in the shipment bound for Long Beach, officials said. The driver, Hector Mendez Navarro, 32, of Guadalajara, Mexico, was arrested on federal drug-smuggling charges.

Two off-duty border agents based in Texas were found dead southwest of Tucson. The agents, one male and the other female, who both worked for U.S. Customs and Border Protection in El Paso, were found by a police officer investigating an abandoned vehicle. It was not known what the two agents were doing in Arizona, said Doug Mosier, a spokesman for the Border Patrol in El Paso.

San Diego homicide detectives are investigating the death of a 30-year-old man while in the custody of U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers Wednesday morning. The man, a suspected smuggler, struggled with officers and died after being restrained, according to homicide Lt. Kevin Rooney. The incident occurred at the San Ysidro port of entry.

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer has been sentenced to five years in prison for his role in a smuggling ring that brought in hundreds of illegal immigrants through his vehicle lane at the Otay Mesa Port of Entry. Michael Gilliland, 44, admitted in a plea agreement last year receiving as much as $120,000 from two smuggling groups for bypassing inspections on cars loaded with immigrants.

Five of six Latino stowaways found aboard a ship headed to the Port of Oakland may be going to Japan if a local agent cannot get them travel documents to fly to their countries of origin, authorities said Friday. The five men are in the custody of the ship's captain. A sixth is in the custody of the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection.

Jersey City has become the nation's first seaport to use new radiation detectors that scan all incoming cargo for nuclear or radiological weapons, federal officials said. Similar devices are planned for 90% of the country's seaports by the end of summer, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Robert C. Bonner said. Several million cargo containers -- about 95% of U.S. international trade -- enter the country every year through its 361 sea and river ports.

Northrop Grumman Corp. won a contract valued at as much as $34 million to supply the U.S. with security equipment along its border with Mexico. Under the award from Customs and Border Protection, Century City-based Northrop will develop and test a system to secure more than 40 border crossings between San Diego and Brownsville, Texas, Northrop said. The system will include surveillance, communications and video analytics.

U.S. authorities intercepted a suspected immigrant-smuggling boat off the coast Thursday morning in the latest in a string of maritime smuggling attempts. U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents discovered the 28-foot boat loaded with 11 suspected illegal immigrants -- nine men and two women, all Mexican -- while on patrol 15 miles off Point Loma. One man was arrested and will be charged with alien smuggling, authorities said. -- -- Richard Marosi

The process of getting into the U.S. for a visit is either easy and efficient or so frustrating that many tourists tell their friends to avoid a trip to the country. The starkly different portrayals of the nation's customs process come from two separate surveys issued in the Last month. The U.S. Travel Assn., a trade group for the nation's travel industry, released a survey in March that said the entry process is so frustrating and inefficient that 43% of travelers would recommend that others avoid visiting the U.S. The group has been lobbying the Obama administration to spend up to $150 million to add 1,000 more customs and border protection officers to speed up the entry process for foreign tourists.

A record 415 people have died trying to cross the border illegally from Mexico in the last 11 months, surpassing the previous high of 383 recorded in fiscal year 2000, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection said. Record numbers of deaths are being recorded in Border Patrol sectors that cover Arizona and south Texas, spokesman Mario Villarreal said. Some of the increase reflects a change in the way Border Patrol officials are counting the dead.